Many different devices and techniques have been developed to score and saw particle board, hardboard, laminated and veneer panels in a manner that avoids splintering at the cut of a circular saw blade. One known technique is to use a single saw first to saw along a cut-line at a shallow depth and with the cutting edge of the saw blade rotating into the workpiece, to score the surface of the workpiece without splintering its surface, and second to saw through the entire depth of the workpiece by moving the cutting blade back along the cut-line with the cutting blade rotating in an opposite direction out of the workpiece but within the previously made score line. U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,849 discloses such a technique.
A second known technique is to provide a prescoring knife, or blade ahead of the saw blade. The prescoring knife or blade cuts through the hard surface of the particle board, hardboard, veneer or laminated surface along a desired cut-line and usually is comprised of a pair of laterally spaced knives or blades. A rotary saw blade subsequently moves between the scored lines made by the knives or blades. The surface scoring made by the knives or blades prevents splintering when the rotary saw blade subsequently cults between the scoring lines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,147 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,245,390 devices for scoring and sawing by this technique.
A third technique uses a combination rotary cutting saw and rotary scoring saw, with the scoring saw positioned ahead of the cutting saw and rotated in a direction opposite to that of the cutting saw. The scoring saw naturally only cuts to a predetermined depth while the cutting saw cuts entirely through the workpiece. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,117,722, 4,706,535, 4,308,777, 5,148,732, 5,287,786, 5,159,870 and 4,181,164 disclose devices for practicing this type of scoring technique.
While the foregoing devices and techniques for scoring and sawing are satisfactory for preventing splintering, they either require more than one step and, thus, are more time consuming than necessary, or involve devices that are bulky and larger than desirable for manual handling of the device. The present invention improves upon the foregoing art by providing a compact, easy to use scoring and sawing device that is adapted to cut a variety of materials.